AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons seem to
be taking a liking to their role as spoiler in the Eastern
Conference.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 20 of his 35 points in the fourth
quarter as the Pistons rallied from a 17-point deficit for a
99-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

Toronto's loss gave idle Milwaukee the Central Division title.

A tip-in by Jerome Williams gave Toronto a 66-49 lead with just
under eight minutes left in the third quarter. But the Pistons
turned to rookie Brian Cardinal for a spark and the Purdue
product delivered. Cardinal scored eight points as Detroit
closed the period with an 18-3 run to get within 69-67 heading
into the fourth quarter.

"Brian gave us great energy in the second half," Detroit coach
George Irvine said. "We know he'll come out and disrupt the
other team. He has a great knack of knocking the ball loose.
When you play that hard, you can always play for my team even if
you're not hitting your shots."

The onslaught continued as Joe Smith scored to give Detroit the
lead for good at 75-73 with nine minutes left. Jud Buechler's
basket capped Detroit's 17-4 run to begin the period for an
84-73 lead with 6:39 to go.

Stackhouse made just 11-of-32 shots but converted all nine free
throws. Afterward, he raved about Cardinal.

"The best thing about playing for this team is the chance to
play with a guy like Brian Cardinal," Stackhouse said. "He
hasn't played much but every day in practice he is out there in
practice working harder than anyone else. Guys like that are
why this team is going to be good someday."

Detroit trailed, 58-41, at halftime as they shot just 39 percent
(17-of-44), including a 4-of-17 effort by Stackhouse.

"Wasn't that a sensational halftime talk?" Irvine asked in jest.
"I just don't know who gave it. Seriously, I didn't say
anything. All I told them was to go out and play the way we've
been playing and they responded. We played a great second half.
This is the seventh time in a row we've held a team under 40
percent shooting so it can't be a fluke."

Corliss Williamson scored 23 points and Ben Wallace grabbed 23
rebounds for Detroit, who won for the sixth time in seven games.
Three of the victories have come against playoff-bound teams.

Cardinal finished with nine points after totaling just nine in
his NBA career coming into the contest.

"A lot of the teams we are playing are playing for playoff
position," Cardinal said. "We are just playing for fun like
when we were younger. We have nothing to lose."

Vince Carter led Toronto with 22 points on just 8-of-25 shooting
while Alvin Williams added 15 points and 11 assists. The
Raptors lost for just the second time in their last 10 games.

"We stopped executing like we did in the first half," Toronto
coach Lenny Wilkens said. "It was like we went to sleep. I
think we thought it was going to be easy in the second half. We
didn't play smart."

Carter was not the only Raptor to struggle from the floor.
Antonio Davis shot 2-of-14 for seven points while Charles Oakley
made just 5-of-14 for 10.

"The frustrating thing is that the first half, everything was
going in," Carter said. "In the second half, we couldn't buy a
basket. I don't think we looked past them."

Toronto remained two games behind fourth-place New York in the
Eastern Conference standings in the race for home-court
advantage in the first round. The Raptors are two games ahead of
sixth-place Charlotte.